BT/0218

£20m Compensation claims for blast atrocity will break all records
By JOHN HICKS

COMPENSATION claims for death and injury resulting from the Omagh bomb atrocity are expected to top a record £20 million.
It will be the biggest bill for a single terrorist outrage ever to be picked up by the government.
The Northern Ireland Compensation Agency is preparing to receive claims from around 400 people caught up in the blast.
The total is expected to easily outstrip the number of claims from two of the province's biggest outrages - La Mon and the Enniskillen Poppy Day massacre.
Despite the death and destruction at Omagh, claims for damage to property are not expected to exceed £3 million.
Tragically, the lowest payments will be for the deaths of the children cut down by the bomb.
But the compensation payments for the death of dependents - mothers and fathers - could reach a total of £2 million.
Claims from the seriously injured are expected to top £10 million.
Some claims from individuals who have been horrendously injured could reach £1 million - the record single payment made several years ago by the Compensation Board.
In 1995 a paratrooper received £600,000 after he lost both legs when he stepped on an IRA booby-trap bomb.
Lady Tebbit, who was paralysed from the chest down in the Brighton Hotel bombing, received £768,502.
A leading Ulster lawyer who specialises in personal injury claims said: "The total payments for personal injuries is going to be an all time high.
"And because of the horrific nature of many of the injuries, some individual payments could reach £1 million.
"Fortunately, in Northern Ireland we have more generous compensation rates than in the rest of the UK or Europe."
More than 100 people - mainly in the emergency services - who suffered mental shock, will also be entitled to claim.
The lawyer added: "Traditionally the police do not lodge trauma claims. The RUC does not want to be seen to be benefiting from the Troubles.
"But anyone in the vicinity of the bomb, including firemen, nurses, medics and members of the public who helped the wounded and can show they have been traumatised, can claim for compensation."
Families of the two Spaniards who died and the 12 injured have been told by the British Embassy they are en titled to claim for compensation.
Frank Brannigan, Head of Operations at the Compensation Agency, said the Omagh claims will be an enormous drain on the compensation fund.
He said: "We are preparing to receive an enormous number of claims.
"We aim to decide on claims within 49 weeks on average. But for the most serious injury cases, settlement could take much longer.
"In appropriate cases interim pay ments would certainly be entertained.
These payments are made where a house has to be adapted or purchase to accommodate a seriously injured person."